Needle exchange in residential neighbourhood worries Regina community
CBC News | Posted: December 8, 2016 1:56 PM | Last Updated: December 8, 2016
Carmichael Outreach is seeking to move into a residential area of Heritage neighbourhood
Some residents of Regina's Heritage neighbourhood have concerns over Carmichael Outreach moving into a residential area of the community.
The City of Regina held an open house last night to allow feedback on Carmichael's application to rezone a property in the Heritage neighbourhood and move its operations there.
Carmichael is a community-based charity that helps people with a variety of needs, providing meals and clothing as well as a needle exchange. The goal of the organization is to combat homelessness.
The application requests a change to the property at 1510 12th Ave. and 1872 St. John St. for Carmichael to move from its current location just on the edge of Regina's downtown on Osler Street.
Needle Exchange Volume
Concerned residents said they are not anti-Carmichael.
"They're in our community already, they're our neighbours already," said Calvin Becker-Burns, a community resident. "We just want that footprint to not increase into the residential part of our neighbourhood."
Becker-Burns also has concerns about the needle exchange program Carmichael Outreach offers being brought further into the residential area.
"We got over 500,000 needles a year coming to the needle exchange program. That's not coming from 500 houses in this neighbourhood," he said. "It's a big influx of people coming into our residential neighbourhood."
Carmichael Outreach responds
The open house Wednesday night was important for Carmichael Outreach to try to address concerns of residents in the neighbourhood.
"We've been in the neighbourhood for 28 years, so a huge focus for us has been to try and do what's good for the neighbourhood, while we are also doing what we need to do as an organization," said Tyler Gray, a representative from Carmichael Outreach.
The organization said the current location is too small and no longer suits its needs so it has proposed a move that would be closer to a residential neighborhood.
Gray said the organization hopes that as they are able to expand and offer services more effectively, in order to have fewer people living on the streets.
The proposed move and rezoning is expected to go before city council in February.
Carmichael Outreach hopes to make the move by next summer.